How exciting it was to see so many of you at the Winter Homeschool Conference last weekend! My reward is seeing how quickly you learned how to use the System.

We met a teenager who had had trouble learning how to read, and by just watching the demonstration, could decode all long and short-vowel words quickly by “Finding the 1st vowel and giving it the CODE.”

He explained his dyslexia had left him with an inability to read. He couldn’t explain what concepts he had previously learned or how he had learned them. After 10 minutes reviewing the Charts with him, he could evaluate his background and explain what he didn’t know.

His mom noticed how he could organize the concepts floating around in his brain by putting them in “Chart Order” so he could always find them. They decided the best way to reinforce his foundation was to have him teach a younger sibling. They would both be improving at the same time.

He was thrilled to recognize that by just knowing the CODE, he could really help his sibling, and himself. He left with a smile on his face and confidence he had never had before. He’ll be ready for the CLUES soon, but meanwhile he’ll be successful really helping his sibling without being threatened himself.

His mom looked even more thrilled!

Hanson Reading Phonics Chart System is simple to understand:

Master each Chart and apply it.

Chart 1-Names of the Letters

The application of Chart 1 is learning to print Uppercase Letters on one line with all the letters the same height and all sitting on the bottom line.

Chart 2-Sounds of the Consonants

The application of Chart 2 is learning to print Lowercase Letters on one line with the “tall” letters the same height and all the “short” letters the same height.

The Vowels can be decoded by applying the CODE to the 1st vowel in each syllable from Chart 3 through Chart 5. How easy is that!

Chart 3-The Vowels and the CODE

The CODE is a Song that decodes long and short vowel words and takes the place of the typical 3 reading rules.

Students find the 1st vowel and “Give it the CODE.”

The application of Chart 3 is learning how to read:

Long-vowel words

Short-vowel words

Learning how to divide words into syllables

Chart 4: Sounds of the Consonant Digraphs, “Married Consonants”

The application of Chart 4 is to learn how to read long & short vowel words with “married consonants”

Chart 5: Sounds of Beginning Consonant Blends

The application of Chart 5 is to learn how to read long & short-vowel words with “Beginning Consonant Blends” .

Learning how to divide words with Open and Closed Syllables

Chart 6: This is the first of the CLUE Charts (6,7,8,9).

Hanson CLUES are vowels “hiding with other letters, CLUE CLUMPS, found on the CLUE Charts in black circles.

The CODE will not work on the CLUES, but all students need to do to identify a CLUE is to learn what letters the vowels hide with. It is a fun detective exercise in which a limited number of new CLUES are learned on each CLUE Chart.

Students still find the 1st vowel FIRST, but now they hesitate a second to see if a letter or letters are “hiding after” that 1st vowel.

(In the nomenclature of the reading world these sounds have no names students recognize. They are often vowel digraphs or dipthongs, but students don’t use those names, so “finding a CLUE is now simple and clear.)

Deciphering the vowel sounds is the only hard part of reading. Consonants are quite constant. “B” makes the same sound almost always. The vowels make many sounds depending on where they are in a word and what letters they are next to. By learning what letters the vowels hide with, students also learn that sound unit for spelling too.

Chart 7 adds more CLUES

Chart 8 adds more CLUES, and students learn that “c” and “g” change their sounds when followed by “e” “i” or “y”.

Chart 9 adds more CLUES and students learn some varying sounds of previous CLUES and a few other consonants that change their sounds.

All students learn a prompt for each Chart so they can be “teachers” reinforcing the concepts they have learned.

With each Chart, practice material is abundant for practice, culminating in the Phonics CODE Books and the Phonics CLUE Books. Although students are taught how to read and spell “Unfair” words in Hanson Memory Association Patterns, those words are seldom encountered in Hanson Reading Phonics Chart System reading materials so students can always be successful applying the CODE or a CLUE or an Open Syllable sound to the first vowel.

The whole system can be summed up:

Find the 1st vowel and give it the CODE or a CLUE

or is it an Open Syllable just for you.

There isn’t an easier way to learn how to read especially since the accompanying Phonics CODE Books only have the “unfair” words: a, the, to, of & I. The Phonics CLUE Books have only a few more. Students are rewarded for applying the concepts they are taught in the System without the discouragement of meeting words that defy what they have been taught.

Hanson Reading, the Phonics Chart System is English made logical.

Even children whose visual memory hasn’t matured yet can read with this System.

It is my pleasure to help you learn how easy it is to learn how to read.